CRB CHECK FEES

Hi, i wonder if anyone could possibly help me, this week I have walked out of my job. I have been there just over 2 mths and still on a trial period basis. I have had big problems with my boss and in the end the other girl that worked there walked out before me and therefore its just been me & him in the office. Hes a very strange man and kept locking us in the office together and saying very silly things etc. He used to ring me at night and out of my work hours to sort things out for him and I had to use my personal mobile to make calls on his behalf etc. I have also worked at home in evenings for him as i have been receiving work eimails at home. I am paid hourly and i have never asked for any extra money for this. Every single employee of his apart from one has done something to him and has many open cases at the moment as hes taken them all to court! Tuesday this week we had a huge argument as i was on the phone arranging an interview for a potential new member of staff and explaining the job to her he shouted at me and told me to get off the phone as thats whats interviews are for as I was answering the ladies questions regarding the job. After the phone call ended i asked him not to speak to me like that and it was very rude to do that too, he accused me of speaking to a friend even though he heard the full conversation and was sat opposite me. I had had enough and walked out, i contacted him the next day to say i was not coming back and i couldnt work for him and i will bring the office keys to him on monday. He was fine about it. The following day i received an email at home from him saying i had til 6pm to bring the keys back in as I was acting illegally holding onto them and if anything happened to the offices he would certainly hold me responsible. At the bottom of the email he put and dont even think about copying the keys as this is downright illegal!!! I therefore took them immediately into the office, he wasnt in so I was outside talking to a lady in the office below ours and i asked her to pass them onto me, he then turned up and i passed them to him, he was so rude, shouting at me in the street, he still reckons i was talking to a friend on the phone chit chatting!! He has also accused me of undertaking my own business in his hours, how i dont know why as we sit opposite each other in a tiny office!! I have never done such a thing! I have since received an email saying out of my wages he owes me he is intending to deduct £70 for a crb check and £20 for a statement of results that he wanted to see and also a lot of time for using his office equipment for my personal business. I have never signed anything to say i had to repay back either the crb check or the statement of results, it was meant to be met by the employer! Please can you tell me how i stand on this? Also how can he deduct money for me supposedly using his time for my personal business?? He has no proof and knows full well i have never done this?? I feel like invoicing him for the times he rang me late at night as he upsets our temporary employees and asks me to sweet talk them to work for him again using my phone! I also have emails with dates & times that are work related that are evenings & weekends and whilst I was meant to be on holiday that I have done for him and never charged for. I am now out of work and desperately seeking another job but can he actually deduct money from the wages he owes me?? A lady who worked for us as a temporary worker at a care home (the company is an agency) left immediately due to his rudeness to her etc and he has never asked for her CRB check money back, he even said to me he cannot do this as nothing was signed and we needed to start and make a form out for them to sign to say they are to pay the crb fee back but this never happened as i walked out only a few days later. Please can you help me if possible just so i know where i stand, iam deeply upset by it all ive tried to explain to him that i went beyond my duties for the business and was practically on call for him without pay which isnt normal for an office post but i wanted to make the company a success but i just cannot work for or with him? Many thanks

please note i am not an expert on the subject but.....refuse to pay back any monies in respect of CRB. The cost for a full enhanced disclosure is £36 plus the POVA which is £6 so in total £42. If the company is an umbrella body then they may charge an admin fee. I would suggest you check your contract and see if it says you must pay back the fee should you leave? Were you employed as a employee or a worker? because agency workers are not classed as employees and do not currently have the same employment rights. that said you have only worked for this person for two months so you have no rights in employment law and if you want my advice i would just move on and ingore him, he sounds a bit mad and it worries me that someone like this is working in the care industry! if he makes a deduction from your wages other than NI and Tax then it is unlawful and I maybe wrong but you would have a case and I hope one of the more experienced advisors on this site will help. good luck.

Yes this is total rubbish. Write to him (recorded delivery) and tell him that you do not agree to any deductions from your wages owed and that if he does so you will immediately start legal proceedings against him for unlawful deduction from wages. If he does, do it. That simple!

There is something else here that is somewhat bothering me - the fact that you have had a CRB check done at all. Because that indicates that you and this person may have been in contact with vulnerable people or chidren - and this man sounds somewhat unstable to put it mildly. What do you /he do?

Hi many thanks for your replies. As I was on a job trial basis with him still I had no contract & also nothing was signed to say I had to pay those two costs back at all. He had written me up a contract but it had errors in it so he agreed to amend it but we didnt get that far before I walked out! So if I was using his time for my personal business etc why would he have offered me a contract?? He maintains I was chatting to a friend when he was sat opposite me & I was discussing the job with a lady on the phone & arranging an interview time! The business is an agency that put care staff into care homes. He said I had to be crb checked as I had to visit the managers in a care home once in a blue moon. I did this twice in the 2mths & that was before the crb had been applied for anyway! As long as I am right & he cannot do this ill take it all the way, hes done awful things to ex employees every time they have left, always ending in court, its his turn! & yes hes a very weird man to say the least but the elderly people are safe, I cant say the same for his next employee though!

Ok so its monday very soon and i have replied to the email my boss sent me with his intentions to deduct the money out, i just want to check as i know i may get a nasty reply tomorrow, I am right with no contract and nothing signed he canot deduct any money whatsoever from my wages he owes me??? Sorry to ask again i just need a straight answer then i know my rights and i can fight him over this if that is what he wants?? many thanks in advance x

he cannot take any deductions from your wages save for NI and Tax. you have signed nothing and have had no contract to date. he is 'chancer' and trying to put the frighteners on you with ridiculous costs for a crb anyway. £70 for the check and some strange fee of £20 for the results sounds bizarre to me? just wait and see what his reply is to your email and then come back onto the site and i am sure you will be advised if you need it. good luck.

If you google the Employment Rights Act 1996 and look at section 13 you find that this legislation protects you from unauthorised deductions from your wages.

Id just like to say a huge thank you for all of your help on this matter, If I receive an email, I can reply coping & pasting section 13. Now I know that hes in the wrong I will stick up for myself, its just annoying that such effort etc has to put in dealing with this when Im seeking jobs which needs my full attention!

It isn't true that an employer cannot make deductions for anything other than tax and NI without a written agreement. It is true that the employer cannot deduct these particular claims from your wages. Just be cautious everyone - there are actually a lot more lawful deductions from wages (including errors in pay, maintenance orders, pension payment - whic in some employments must be opted out of rather than into! - and so on)than tax and NI

totally agree of course an employer can deduct other things from a salary usually with the employees knowledge and they can even take back money for CRB if its in the contract or employment letter. My own employer does in fact state that if you leave within a certain time then the CRB fee must be repaid. But this is in writing and signed by the employee. But I would be most concerned about the cost of the CRB and the way this employer is behaving if what the poster alleges is true.

I have received an email from him stating I will receive my full pay but hes going to invoice me for the crb etc & if I dont pay hes taking me to court, so where do I stand now, remembering I signed nothing to say I require to pay anything back, he hasnt even make a temp that worked & told him where to go after just 1 shift pay him back for her crb!?

Just write back and say that you have never agreed to paying this and you have no intnetion of paying him money which you do not owe him. Then if he wants to take it to court he can do so. Unless he has got something you signed agreeing to this they will throw him out.

many thanks for your reply, so should i just get back to his email with what you said or should i call ACAS just to make sure of my rights?? It is definite I do not have to pay him back if i never signed anything?? I did say at the time he wanted to pay for these checks that i cant afford it and he said he is paying, hes just being abitter man i think because like the rest i walked out!

just to clarify something did you know or were you aware that it was normal to pay for a crb? some employees do if they are employed as temporary workers. if you are sure then do what Shikhara says and stand your ground. either way i do not believe it would be worth his while taking this to court. just a point though Shikhara has made reference in other posts to the ISA and this went live in October so i wonder if the costs the employer quotes are the new ISA cost which is £64 plus any admin if they use an umbrella body? that would explain the figure of £70 which would not be unreasonable but to be fair a lot for a new employee. But lots of companies are now expecting new staff to pay for this. It will be interesting how things pan out over the next few months and years as the scheme is rolled out. Back to the original post check your handbook and any other documentation just to be sure that you do not have to pay. The fact that it was mentioned at interview and he agreed to pay might suggest that it was company policy. Does not explain why the other person did not pay though?

As I say theres nothing I can check as I have never had anything off him, I was on a 2mth trial basis that he always does for his office staff but never signed a contract to go permanent. He didnt mention in my interview I had to have an enhanced crb with pova check, he didnt mention it until a few weeks in when I was working for him. My job title was office manager. But nothing was signed or spoken to say I was liable to pay back the fees mentioned. Like I say 1 temp lady did 1 shift in a care home for us then told him she wont work for his agency, her pay for the shift was paid to her, no crb deductions, he told me he couldnt as didnt get her to sign a crb repayment contract but we should look at producing one for future use

IOt's pretty clear - you either signed something to say you would pay this back or you didn't. If you didn't he can't claim it. If you did them he can. you are making this more complex than it needs to be. What someone else did or didn't do and what might or might not be developed or said, isn't relevant. Only what happened.

Must comment that, unless you specifically signed your assent to pay for CRB etc checks, then your employer has no authority at all to deduct the cost of them from your wages/

If you would like further reassurance that the advice received here is correct; check out section 15 of the Employment Rights Act.

Thank you so much everybody! X

well my pay date has been and gone with no wages, ive called my boss and soon as i announce my name hes slammed phone down, ive received an emai saying im not allowed to call him anymore all to be done via email, so i emailed to ask where my wages were, no response so i called him, slammed phone down, my dad called him and he slammed phone down on him too, ive received an email since saying he may pay me some money next week ony if he has time. I responded saying my wages are already overdue and to get them into my account and if tomorrow its not there i will have to go to a solicitor, i got a reply saying see you in court then! So ive rang a solicitor who wants £125 +vat for each hour. Ive rang ACAS who are going to start off a pre-claim consiliation. Does he know something i dont?? As he doesnt seem bothered that he hasnt paid me my wages including some expenses he owes me for items ive bought for the office out of my own money. I have worked now and have nt been paid and i have no money and i am relaly worried i am a single parent with a huge mortgage im in tears!! please help anyone if you possible can??? many thanks in advance